Opinion: People in our industry are averse to the role of architect because there's a lot of misconception about what an architect actually does.

Not the job of an architect: telling people what classes they should write and let them implement the loops.

The job of an architect: In these three teams, we are working with similar ideas. If we put them under the same category, we will reduce the complexity in the system and will be able to implement our future product plans easily.

Not the job of an architect: I implemented all the juicy parts, now you can turn it into a production system.

The job of an architect: If we break this convoluted problem into five smaller ones and each of us solves one of them, we can put them together and get the whole solution.

Not the job of an architect: we should overdesign the system now because I think this is what it should look like in 5 years.

The job of an architect: talk to business and product people to get a sense of what our requirements might be in 6 months, a year and three years, and make sure we don't make decisions that will hinder our progress later.

The job of an architect: have a list of high level requirements and cross cutting concerns and how they map to technical features, and verify planning vs. execution.

The job of an architect: represent the technical aspects of the project with external stakeholders.

The best architecture work is done by having a lot of small conversations with a lot of different people to get alignment.
By the time you write down the plan, it should be already obvious to everyone and mostly agreed upon.

Declined jobs in places like these because for me it’s a major red flag.

From the people who brought you we are a flat organization here there are no managers.

From the people who brought you we are a family.